@muffinlance I submit to you my entry for the “Be the fanfic of the fanfic you want to see in the world” challenge.

Things I’ve learned in the past 24 hours: the legion brand blocks are way better than fluid brand blocks, lemon yellow and quinacridone rose will never let me down, and that I don’t know how to draw or paint a dragon, even if it’s as cute a dragon as @muffinlance’s version of Zuko in her Scaled Over AUs. 😂

From a (relatively) quick sketch.

To a cleaner sketch (traced of the first photo on my tablet and then improved).

To the lined in ink version (there is a reason I usually do this digitally, I wanted to reverse a line (I even tipped on where the button always is relative to the picture) just to realise that... there is no reverse button...^^).

To the cleaned version (aka attacked with my old buddy, the eraser).

So I was reading Scaled Over and snooping on @muffinlance ‘s wonderful baby dragons in the ATLA world posts and I got ideas: 

  So, Air Nomad dragons are the cutest little hatchlings, like tiny little noodles. They have really smooth scales and a ruff of pin feathers running from their head to their tail and covering the backs of their wings. These will eventually fall out and be replaced with proper flight feathers. They grow their legs last - after a couple of years, but can fly pretty much from the egg.

Earth Kingdom hatchlings are bulky and rough scales and covered in horns and spines. They have large hindfeet and tiny forearms and are the last dragon to grow their wings - not growing them until they are five years old so initially they look like spiny little featherless T-Rexes. They play by smacking their heads into each other like goats which can be unfortunate for their softer-headed playmates. 

Fire Nation dragons are like Air nomads in that they look like little noodles - Although Fire nation hachlings do have legs instead of feathers they have a fluffy mane. They aren’t very good at thermo-regulating when they’re young so sleepy-sunning time is very important for baby fire nation dragons. (If the un isn’t hot enough because, say, you’re in the south pole hunting the avatar snuggling with other firebenders also helps. - ‘No. no Zuko’ Uncle Iroh says, ‘It’s not a hug, it’s medicinal’) 

Day 21 Treasure

When people whisper in sympathy of the slow destruction the Fire Nation inflicted on the Southern Watertribe they only speak of their benders. They speak of raids on the edges of the ice. Of people poached like wild game and dragged into unnatural steel ships to never be seen again. And later, when the jails were full but the Fire Nation still hungered for more, always more, they spoke of the slaughter that crippled the Watertribe to a shell of what it once was.

They never speak of what the Fire Nation took first. The first to fall by the flames and steel, the dragons.

Because to speak of dragons is to speak of Before. Before the raids came. Before the Avatar disappeared. Before the Fire Nation set it's voracious greed on the rest of the world. Before when there was peace and love.

They never speak of when the first warships stained the snow with soot there were dragons who lead the defense. For dragons will always protect their hoards even from distant kin. Scales pale to match the ice and snow of it's home. Nothing like the yellows and oranges (or the coveted reds of the royal family) of the Fire Nation.

They never speak of the battles that cracked the ice and melted the snow in their wake. Of massive serpents grappling in the air and in the land. Of elders, whose coils could wrap around ships and drag them down to the oceans deeps, swarmed by smaller much smaller opponents until exhaustion made the final blow. Of youngsters, barely fifteen feet, ripping nets and carrying away the wounded plucked from the sky by the older, more experienced foes.

They never speak of the pelts sold to rich merchants and nobles. Of coats, rugs, belts, shoes, and jewelry made from the skin of an elder, a father, a mother, a child. Scales the color of snow that shine like mother-of-pearl when you wash the blood off.

They never speak of the dragons from Before. But the Avatar has returned, and with him comes hope and change. Maybe they'll speak of them now.

@muffinlance

Latest chapter || Read from the beginning

The privateer had found the prize of the pile: a solid black molt, buried under the more common blues and grays of her people. He rubbed its edge between his thumb and forefinger.

“Younger than I thought, with how few of these make it to market. A teenager around the prince’s age should be shedding more. Is… he getting enough to eat? …She?”

“I’m sure they are,” Katara said, trying not to feel her own skin crawl. It wasn’t impossible to tell a dragon’s age from the thickness of their molts. Obviously. But it was a skill that required a fair bit of hands-on experience.

Story Summary:

At thirteen, Zuko knelt on the Agni Kai field and proclaimed himself his father's loyal son. But when fire touched his face, his dragon form begged to differ.